He got to his feet and headed for the door. 'I'm out of here.'
'Irana?' Emily repeated. 'Irana's coming here? Why?'
'I thought we might need her. We were told Babin has some deal¬ings with the Church, remember?'
'And you'd run that risk on 'might'?' she asked. 'When were you going to tell me she was coming?'
'It was no secret. You were a little upset earlier, and I didn't want to disturb you.'
'You're damn right. I am disturbed.' She drew a deep breath. 'But we'll go into that later. What about Babin?'
'Oh, he's still alive. Pauley is driving him to the airport in Moscow even as we speak. I drove Babin's car back here. He's going to stay at his house in Monte Carlo for a while. He told me he'd feel safer from Staunton if he was as far away from Russia as he could get. Though I think he was more eager to get away from me. He was a little worried that I refused to give him my word that I wouldn't go after him later.' His lips tightened. 'Which I will. He's just unfinished business. I only let him scoot out of here in case I found I needed more information from him later.'
'He'll probably disappear anyway.'
'Maybe. But I'll know where he is. I called Ferguson and asked him to have an agent trail him from the time he got off the plane in Paris. Could I have a cup of that coffee?'
'It's cold. Dardon and I have been sitting here for hours.'
'I'll heat it up.' He moved across the room and put the pot back on the burner. 'And I'm sorry you've been worried. I hoped you'd sleep through the night.'
'You could always have given me knockout drops,' she said sar¬castically.
'That wouldn't have been honorable. I took advantage of the sit¬uation. I didn't create it.' He gazed at her. 'And I knew I'd eventually have to face you over this. I had to decide if it was worth it.'
'Babin,' she prompted.
'He was reluctant, but I eventually convinced him that he'd talk to me or never talk again.' 'Is he a middleman?'
'Yes, for Peter Joslyn, the big plastics industrialist.' He took the pot off the burner and poured coffee into a cup. 'Joslyn hired him when Nicholas Zelov came to Moscow with old Mikhail Zelov's book and three amulets and wanted to turn them into gold. Nicholas Zelov went to Bishop Dimitri and offered them to him, but somehow)slyn was pulled into the mix. Joslyn didn't want Zelov to know that e was involved so he used Babin as a go-between. He told Babin that e was to get the Book of Living and. the amulets, and in return Zelov as to receive a huge lump sum that would get him out of financial ouble and quarterly allowances from then on.'
'The amulets were that important?'
'Very important.'
'And there was a treasure hidden in the hammer?'
'According to Babin. He said it was all in the Book of Living. As ell as where the hammer was hidden away.'
She shook her head. 'What difference would that make when all lat happened almost a hundred years ago? Why wouldn't he have Hie back and retrieved it himself? Or why wouldn't the Communist wernment have discovered it in all that time?'
'Evidently they didn't.'
'It's hard to believe that it could be safely hidden for nearly a cen-iry. Where?'
'In plain sight. With a collection of other farm equipment in a useum in Siberia. What could be safer?'
'Artifacts in museums aren't safe. I'd be out of a job if they were.'
'This museum was different. It was called the People's Museum, he exhibit was a symbol of the workers' revolution. It was several iols artfully arranged, and over it flew the flag that had the hammer id sickle of the new Communist state. For decades it would have;en considered close to treason to disturb such a patriotic showcase, ibin said that Joslyn must have believed that it had remained undis-›vered, or he wouldn't have been willing to put out the kind of loney he did to buy the Book of Living and the amulets. Or to au-lorize him to hire Staunton to go after the hammer when they found it that the farm equipment exhibit had been sent on loan to that luseum in Afghanistan. He told Babin to keep the amulets in the safe in his office. He didn't want to have them in his possession since the} were stolen historical artifacts.' He patted his jacket pocket. 'We have them now. That makes three.'
'Are they any different from the one we got from Nemid's safe?'
'Only minor differences in the scrolling of the gold around the picture.'
'But did Joslyn take the Book of Living?' He nodded. 'Joslyn has one book.' 'One?'
'Babin is a crook. Do you think he wouldn't make a photocopy of the book for himself before he let it out of his hands?' He reached into his jacket pocket. 'By the way, he said that there was a map dated 1913 tucked in that Book of Living that he gave to Joslyn. He made a copy of that, too. That means Nemid's map was probably a very well done fake. Babin was very disappointed in most of the content of the book. He was only interested in the treasure that was in the hammer. He was likely thinking of doing a double cross, but when he found out that all the farm equipment had been sent on loan to the museum in Afghanistan, it complicated everything, and he felt out of his league.' He pulled out a loose-leaf volume. 'But he kept this copy in his office safe anyway. So we dropped in there and retrieved it before I sent him off to the airport.'
She reached out and took the volume. 'Russian.'
'Yes, you'll have to trust me to translate.' He gazed at her over the rim of his cup. 'If you can.'
'I think I can trust you in some areas,' she said coolly. 'But the hammer wasn't with the other farm equipment in that museum cellar in Afghanistan. So it has to be somewhere else, doesn't it?'
'So it would seem.'
'And what was that amulet we found in Nemid's library?'
'A bribe. Babin said he left it up to Staunton how to get the ham¬mer from the museum in the fastest manner possible. The U.N. was to be the first to go into that area after the fighting. So Nemid commandeered your team to go in so that Staunton could raid your truck on the way back.'
Blood running from beneath the overturned truck.
'And that amulet with Rasputin's picture was Nemid's bribe money? Why? What's it supposed to be?'
He shrugged. 'I didn't go into more than the bare facts with Babin. Staunton must have convinced him that it had some value. Probably it was supposed to seal the partnership. Maybe after we read the book, we'll know more.'
'I want to see the amulet again.'
'It's in my suitcase. I'll get it for you.' He got to his feet and went outside to the lean-to. He was back in minutes and handed her the box. 'Anything else?'
'You can translate Mikhail Zelov's book double quick.' She opened the box and gazed down at the amulet of Rasputin. 'Payment for all that blood and misery… Look at him. Those burning eyes. He looks like the holy man he pretended to be. The holy man Zelov created.' Her gaze shifted to the words below the amulet. 'You're sure this is just a blessing?'
He nodded. 'And I looked for any secret compartments or other writing. Nothing. I checked out the map, too. No invisible ink or any¬thing similar. Though if it was a copy, it probably wouldn't show any indications. That doesn't mean that under sophisticated tests some¬thing might not show up. But you have to consider that this amulet was created in the early twentieth century.'
She closed the box again. 'Did Babin tell you what was supposed to be in the hammer?'
'Oh, yes.' He smiled faintly. 'And it's quite a treasure. Not Anas-tasia's jewels or the Tsarina's favorite pearl pendent. It's precise direc¬tions to the location of the treasure the Tsar had sent out of the country in case the royal family had to flee the revolutionaries.' He paused. 'Billions, Emily. Billions.'
'It didn't do him any good, did it? His whole family was butchered before he could get them out of Russia.'
'But you can see how it would be a lure that would attract Babin and Joslyn… and perhaps Bishop Dimitri.'
She nodded. 'I can see it.' She got to her feet. 'I'm going to try to get some sleep. Why don't you take a nap, then start working on that translation.'
His brows rose. 'That was more an order than a request.'
